Here is the text of their response any my preliminary reply.
The plans can be seen from the original post on Chelsea Bridge.
What do you want to do about this - let us know...
On 29/03/11 11:28, Murthwaite Paul wrote:
Dear Mr Grahn Your email below has been passed on to myself, many thanks for your comments please find our response as follows: 1) What was sent through first was pre-consultation only sent to the emergency services and other people requested to be contacted by the Borough. Public consultation on the order begins with the publishing of the public notice of intent in the local media and London Gazette, at the same time the notice is published in the media, street notices will also be hung on site. These notices give a 21 day period where members of the public may view the orders, plans, etc either at the Borough of Wandsworth or TfL. Within this time responses and objections to the scheme are all logged and addressed prior to the order being signed off and made. Statutory guidelines are strictly adhered to. 2) The documentation has now been amended to 1.5m, originally the design was to provide a 2m facility. The design was changed to provide adequate space on the northbound carriageway, in order to achieve this the southbound cycle lane had to be narrowed from 2m to 1.5m. The new design now provides a 4.5m bus lane on the northbound carriageway which allows cyclists to be overtaken comfortably at any time. Additionally, the wider bus lane means that cyclists are able to position themselves in the outside part of the lane in order to move over to the right hand lane to turn right at Grosvenor Road.
Dear Mr Murthwaite,
Many thanks for your response to my comments. I take the point that this was a pre-consultation, but do still have concerns that the consultation was carried out with contradictory and out-dated documentation.
We have very significant concerns regarding the narrowing of the mandatory cycle lane to sub-standard dimensions. The reasons given - to allow cyclists to be 'comfortably' overtaken by a bus - do not in our opinion balance the loss of comfort and increased risk of collision resulting from the narrowing of the southbound lane. The particular design of the bridge, whereby the cycle lane is bounded by the solid bridge abutments which gives cyclists no possibility of escape when coupled with a relatively narrow 3.1m running lane will lead to a facility whereby cyclists are squeezed in a very narrow zone between passing vehicles and the bridge wall. This will be neither comfortable or safe and cannot be considered compatible with any form of cycle route, let alone a 'super' highway.
I will be circulating your response to our members and we will formulate a considered objection as soon as we can.
In the mean time we would welcome an opportunity to discuss the layout of lanes on the bridge with the design team.
Regards,
Mike Grahn
Wandsworth Cycling Campaign
Here's what the view looks like southbound on joining Chelsea bridge:
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.485712,-0.149974&spn=0.00326,0.009645&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.485712,-0.149974&panoid=JOze4u4guOPIT8aZHyV3yg&cbp=12,183.38,,0,0
I'd be seriously concerned about the safety of a sub-standard width cycle lane along here, given:
- that nearside abutment, which removes the footway as a possible 'escape option',
- the high (existing) volumes of cyclists
- the likelihood of growth in numbers of cyclists as a major component of vehicular traffic over this bridge (which means greater capacity for people cycling will be needed, to facilitate overtaking of other cyclists - necessitating moving well out in order to overtake safely), and
- the lack of a 20mph speed limit.
In my view, even suggesting a narrow cycle lane in these circumstances, on what purports to be a 'cycle superhighway', risks bringing TfL - and by extension the Mayor - into disrepute.